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Civil unions: Boulder couple wants to show thanks for progress on a charged issue

Couple's children have learned 'a person's a person'

By Charlie Brennan Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
04/27/2013 04:00:00 PM MDT

Updated:
04/28/2013 12:01:57 AM MDT

Civil unions in Boulder County

Beginning Wednesday, civil unions will be legal in Colorado under Senate Bill 13-011, signed into law March 21 by Gov. John Hickenlooper. To mark this historic occasion, the Daily Camera today profiles three Boulder County same-sex couples who plan to obtain their civil union licenses when the Clerk and Recorder's Office opens at 12 a.m. Wednesday.

Coming Monday

Boulder County likely to see more female couples than males turn out early for civil unions.

Dawn of civil unions

What: Civil unions will be licensed and certified by Colorado county clerks starting Wednesday

It's mid-afternoon, and the relative quiet of a sun-splashed home in north Boulder erupts with the brand of sudden and joyful noise only two grade-schoolers freshly home for the day can muster.

Josh Lewis-Martin, 9, and Camryn Lewis-Martin, 8, tumble into the living room to snuggle between their parents on a sofa and join a conversation about the changing American family.

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"A person's a person," Josh reasoned. "Our moms could be with a boy right now, and they would be married. So, it's pretty fair that two girls or two boys could get married. It's pretty nice."

Of course, the kids' moms can't actually get married yet -- in Colorado. But starting Wednesday they may obtain a state-recognized civil union, affording them virtually all the same rights under state law as those enjoyed by married couples.

Camryn appears most taken for now with the fact that her mothers, Fiona Martin and Amanda Lewis, will follow their 12 a.m. Wednesday trip to the county clerk's office with an overnight at Boulder's posh St. Julien Hotel & Spa.

"I'm really excited," Camryn said. "It's going to be fun. I mean, I'm kind of jealous that they get to stay at the St. Julien Hotel because I've always been wanting to go there. But yeah, I feel pretty good about it."

Martin and Lewis met in a San Francisco nightspot 12 years ago, when both still lived in California. The dot-com bubble had crashed, and early in 2001 they decided Colorado was likely to offer much more of what they wanted together. Martin had lived here previously.

"I said, 'Let's go to Colorado in February. If you like it then, you'll like it every other month,'" Martin told Lewis, who was familiar with the state from ski trips during her youth.

First, they settled in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood. But work and commuting issues combined to spur their relocation to Boulder in 2005.

Both are politically active on the issue of same-sex equity. Martin, who describes herself as "40-something," is on the advisory board for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the board of directors for the LGBT advocacy group One Colorado.

Lewis, 44, is a volunteer facilitator for OASOS, a Boulder County support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning youth ages 13 to 18. She has also been active in the NCLR.

"One of the reasons that you're compelled to be an activist when you're gay is that you start to scrutinize your legal protections, and you start to take inventory of where you're protected and where you're not," Martin said.

"And one of the reasons that we're so proud of Colorado and so overjoyed about this step that the lawmakers have taken, and the Colorado voters have taken, is that we now have legal protections for our family."

Lewis agreed, saying, "You kind of have to be an activist to have kids in this type of arrangement. You have to figure out what your legal rights are, what you're going to do in terms of legalities, in terms of having rights to the children."

As some other lesbian couples in Colorado have done in recent years, they arranged to have each other added as parents to each child's birth certificate through the Uniform Parentage Act.

Now they will be among the 40 or more couples lining up to obtain civil union licenses as close as possible to 12 a.m. Wednesday.

"I think the reason we're doing it May 1, and we're not waiting, is we hope that our presence is a sign to the lawmakers to say, 'Thank you for doing this, and we appreciate your courage, and we appreciate the leadership of members of the gay community that have fought for this,'" Martin said.

From their time in California, both are well aware of the tortured history of same-sex marriage in that state, where Proposition 8 banned such unions just months after a California Supreme Court law had allowed them. The constitutionality of Proposition 8, along with the federal Defense of Marriage Act, will soon be decided by pending U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Martin and Lewis understand all too well that the legal landscape on an issue close to their hearts is always in flux.

"We have been waiting for 12 years," Lewis said. "I have to say I'm so proud of Colorado. I really never thought in my lifetime that we would see it here. It was not in my realm of reality. I think we are still both pinching each other."

Martin agreed that Wednesday "will be a day of celebration for us. And May 2, we will wake up and continue to fight for marriage. This is a step. It's not marriage.

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